Customer Effort Score (CES)
With the Customer Effort Score (CES), you measure how much effort your customers had to make to get something done, for example to complete a purchase, reach customer service or redeem a voucher. The less effort, the more likely customers are to stay loyal to you.
Ask the question as soon as possible after the interaction, for example on the order confirmation page or after a contact with support.
CES 1.0 and CES 2.0
For every CES question, you choose the variant under CES Version:
| CES 1.0 | CES 2.0 (default) | |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | 1 to 5 | 1 to 7 |
| Typical question | “How much effort did you have to make to complete your purchase?” | “To what extent do you agree with the following statement: ‘It was easy to complete my purchase.’” |
| Label for 1 | Very little | Strongly agree |
| Label for the highest value | Very much (5) | Strongly disagree (7) |
In both versions, 1 stands for very low effort and the highest value for very high effort. A low CES is therefore good.
CES 2.0 is a further development of the original question. Instead of being asked about their own effort, customers rate a statement. This makes it sound less as if customers were responsible for the effort themselves, and the 7-point scale delivers more precise results.
Word the question or statement so that it matches the scale labels. For CES 2.0, the statement should be positive (“It was easy …”), so that “Strongly agree” means low effort.
How CES is calculated
The CES is the average of all ratings:
CES = sum of all ratings ÷ number of responses
Example: 15 respondents answered, and their ratings add up to 32. 32 ÷ 15 = CES of 2.13.
The best possible score is 1 (very low effort), the worst is the highest value of the scale, i.e. 5 or 7. Respondents who skipped the question are not included. To learn how CES is shown in the reporting, see Reporting: Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) & Customer Effort Score (CES).
Settings:
- You can set whether the question should be mandatory.
- You can choose the CES Version: CES 1.0 (Scale 1 - 5) or CES 2.0 (Scale 1 - 7).
- You can choose the Rating symbols: stars or numbers.
- The scale follows from the version and cannot be changed, so that the CES stays comparable.
- The labels at both ends of the scale are prefilled depending on the version (see table above). You can customize them.
You can use the CES question in all four survey types, including as the first question of an Embedded Mail survey.
Logic: You can add logic with if/then rules:
If Customer Effort Score is exactly/is better than or equal/is worse than or equal X,
then show the Thank You Message/close the survey/go to question X.
In logic, “better” and “worse” refer to the numerical value: is better than or equal 5 applies to 5, 6 and 7, i.e. to high effort. To ask respondents with high effort for their reasons, use a rule like If Customer Effort Score is better than or equal 5, then go to question X for CES 2.0.